Anonymous NHL Player Poll Shows Both
Respect, Hatred For Carolina Hurricanes
By David Glenn
North Carolina Sports Network
For almost a decade before the 2018 arrivals of team owner Tom Dundon and head coach Rod Brind’Amour, National Hockey League players didn’t have many reasons to think about the Carolina Hurricanes at all.
Now, according to a recent poll, NHL players frequently think of the Hurricanes when they’re asked about the best and worst things the league has to offer.
When Dundon hired Brind’Amour in May 2018, the Canes had just completed an embarrassing nine-year run (2009-10 through 2017-18) in which they didn’t make the playoffs — in an era when the postseason bracket still included more than half (16 of 30) the league’s teams — even a single time.
In the immediate aftermath of that nine-season playoff drought (one of the longest in NHL history), the Hurricanes have made six consecutive trips to the playoffs to begin the Dundon/Brind’Amour era, and they’re in the process of extending that impressive streak to seven in a row.
As a result, players throughout the league think of the Canes much more often, in contexts good and bad.
In a poll of active NHL players published this week by The Athletic, the Hurricanes were in the headlines for two main reasons: 1-their universally respected head coach, and 2-the overwhelmingly disliked visiting-team locker room at their home arena, which is now called the Lenovo Center.
Especially with the poll’s 111 responding players granted anonymity for all of their answers, there was little reason to question the candor of their responses.
Asked what other NHL head coach (besides their own) they would like to play for, the players made Brind’Amour one of the top three answers:
23.6% — Jon Cooper, Tampa Bay Lightning
13.2% — Paul Maurice, Florida Panthers
8.5% — Rod Brind’Amour, Carolina Hurricanes
“I’ve heard (Brind’Amour) rewards players that are committed and work hard,” one player said. “I think that would fit my traits and we could build a good relationship. He’s someone you want to play for, and he’s also had good success in Carolina. They’ve had good runs but have just come up short. Every year they’ve been there as one of the final teams.”
“Seems like a very straightforward coach,” another player said. “No matter what kind of team they have, or how it looks on paper, they’re always a fast, hard-to-play team.”
The players also were asked which NHL head coach they would least like to play for. Of the 93 players who answered that question, only two players mentioned Brind’Amour, and one of those replies seemed to be in jest.
“Just because he’s way more in shape than I am,” the player said, “so he’d be intimidating.”
The Hurricanes’ other most prominent place in this year’s NHL player poll definitely came as a criticism, not a compliment.
Asked which NHL team has the worst facilities, the players collectively cast far more votes for the Canes than for the league’s other 31 teams combined.
65.7% — Carolina Hurricanes
20% — Calgary Flames
(no other team received more than 1.9%)
At the Lenovo Center (formerly PNC Arena), visiting players are forced to warm up and lift weights or ride the bike after the game in a hallway or a giant storage area. The visiting-team locker room itself, despite a recent renovation that added about two feet of width, might be the most cramped in the league, too.
“It used to be Carolina, but then they upgraded,” one player said. “And somehow it’s still Carolina.”
“The visiting room sucks,” another player said. “And the home room is basically the visiting room with some paint on the walls. So, yeah, pretty s—-y.”
“Terrible,” another Carolina voter said.
“Carolina stinks,” said another.
“It’s brutal,” said another. “It sucks. Everything about that trip sucks.”
“Not even close,” said another.
“Probably ours,” one particularly sneaky Hurricanes player said. “This summer, they’re supposed to change it up a little bit. We’ve been telling them to put it off.”
